Oura adds new fitness metrics to show how workouts impact your body - TechCrunch

Oura has been circling the sports marketing space for years, but this year, the wearable tech company formed ties with several iconic properties to further cement its presence with increasingly health-conscious fans. Oura started the year with Olympic-sized partnerships with Team USA and Team Finland and then announced a long-term deal with US Soccer a couple of months later, just in time for the World Cup. By late summer, Oura was diving into its first year as the official wearable of the US Open, and before the tournament had concluded, it also formalized a multiyear sponsorship with reigning World Series champs the Los Angeles Dodgers. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, the New York Knicks, one of Oura’s only formal, consumer-facing sports partnerships prior to this year, won the NBA championship. While the company’s push into sports sponsorships has been more organic than predetermined, it’s a shift that lines up with increasing sports viewership, team valuations, and a general societal pivot toward healthier living.

Fans of Oura are accustomed to using its trendy smart rings to fastidiously monitor their health but now investors are preparing to track a new metric: its share price. The company’s filing to list imminently on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York was made public on Thursday. Founded in Finland in 2013 and now headquartered in San Francisco, Oura makes smart rings that have become a must-have item among wellbeing enthusiasts, with celebrity fans and ambassadors including Jennifer Aniston, Prince Harry, Kim Kardashian and the Spider-Man actor Tom Holland. The ring allows users to track metrics including heart rate, temperature and sleep quality. Prince Harry wears a Oura ring while on a beach in Australia with his wife, Meghan, in 2018. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty ImagesThe rings sell for $349 to $499 (about £258-£360), with subscribers then paying $5.99 a month or $69.99 a year for full access to data on their health. The US filing showed a thriving, high-margin business, which brought in $1.21bn in revenue in the nine months to 30 June, up 74% year on year.